High flying Ayr cut ‘Muir down to size in defeat

Date: 29/07/13, STENHOUSEMUIR. Tryst Road. Cricket ground. Rushdie Jappie third year of professional and scored 800+ runs so far this season.

Published:16:12Thursday 04 August 2016

Share this article

Last week saw further defeats for Stenhousemuir as they lost to Uddingston at the Tryst on Saturday and to Ayr in the semi- final of the west League Cup 20/20 at Cambusdoon on Sunday.

On Saturday they did well to bowl out Uddingston for151 but yet again the batting let them down and they were bowled out for 117. The wickets for ‘Muir were shared among the bowlers with Rushdie Jappie taking including that of Uddingston opener Hafeez who scored 40. Amir Shahzad, Ahmed Ali and Iain McDonald all took two and Yasser Arfat, on.

This should have been well within reach but as ever the fragile batting let them down again. With Ash Davidar still struggling it falls to Rushdie Jappie and Amir Shahzad to make most of the runs with some support from the rest. Here Jappie was out for 20 and Shahzad for 44 to a rash shot. Apart from 16 from Sohail Patel the remainder fell quickly to the spinner Hafeez who finished with 5 for18.

At Ayr on Sunday, having done well to reach the semi final of the West League Cup, ‘Muir again came up against their nemesis, Ayr’s Australian professional Michael Papps. In two previous meetings tisseason, he had scored149 and 148, both not out and Sunday was no exception. With only 20 overs available to him he scored 71 before falling to Iain Mcdaonald. He has an average of 368 against Stenhousemuir this season and this final effort killed any chance of Stenhousemuir reaching the final stone dead as Ayr reached 174 for five. For the record, Amir Shahzad took two wickets and Mohammed Yasir, Rushdie Jappie and Iain McDonald one each. Stenhousemuir made 112 for nine in reply with Amir Shahzad scoring 52 and Jappie 32.

A heavy shower just before the start of play washed out the 2 nd XI fixture with 2 nd Uddingston at Bothwell Castle Policies. This Saturday Stenhousemuir are away to Dumfries whom they defeated earlier in the season.